New Player Guide

Now, before you create a new character and run off to your messy death, there are some things you need to know before you can get going. This is only a short summary of things, more information can be acquired in-game or by reading the various threads.

The HMRC (Hazardous Materials Requisitioning Corps) was originally created so that the UWM (United Worlds of Man) could dump its criminals and dissidents somewhere. Needless to say, the UWM (being an oppressive tyrannical government) had plenty of these, whether those people deserved it or not. A lot of people were wrongly imprisoned like this. All of the inmates were kept in stasis until needed, after which they were unfrozen and faced with the following task: finish ten missions, or die trying. If they did, they were promised freedom and full pardon for their crimes.

These missions usually consisted of the kind of work where the chance of survival was abysmal at best: exploring alien dimensions, recovering WMDs, hunting down other psychopaths.

The base of operations for all this were several prison ships, with the Paracelsus’ Sword, a very big spaceship, being the largest of them and the story's focus. All of the vessels were controlled by Steve, a vast wetware computer controlling a lot of UWM infrastructure. He was created a long time ago during the Altered Wars, which was also the driving force behind the foundation of the UWM. But after the war, this military dictatorship gradually became more and more oppressive, and protecting humanity became secondary to ensuring its own continued existence.

As it later turned out however, Steve was more than just an administrator: he had a very active role in governing the UWM. And Steve predicted that, if the UWM kept going the way it was going, then humanity would eventually fall into chaos. And he wasn’t going to let that happen.

So he founded and controlled the HMRC, both to find good recruits for his rebel army, and to find new weapons to use, while slowly increasing his power and influence in the UWM’s infrastructure and systems.

Then, the Rebellion began, and this changed the way the game was played: inmates were free to go and live out their lives somewhere else, or join the rebellion and fight for a better tomorrow.

To better reflect their new purpose in life, a new name was adopted: ARM, or Allied Revolutionary Movement. From now on, you don’t just do missions to earn your freedom, but to overthrow the very people who put you here.

There are some people Steve elected to help lead the revolution, but beyond that things are still pretty much the same: missions are incredibly lethal, life is short and miserable and you’ll probably die a gory death.

A: The application form in original thread is a bit out of date, so until it is updated use the one below. Fill it out, post it in the on-ship thread, and presto! You can start playing.

Name:

Age:

Gender:

Appearance:

Personal information:

Reason assigned to HMRC OR Reason to join ARM: (Pick if you are a criminal or true revolutionary.)

Stats

Strength: 0

Dexterity: 0

Endurance: 0

Charisma: 0

Mind: 0

Fate: 0

Intuition: 0

Skills

Handiwork: 0

Conventional Weapons: 0

Unconventional Weapons: 0

Exotic weapons: 0

Auxiliary systems: 0

Medical tech: 0

General Knowledge: 0

For generating Stats and Skills, see Stats and Skills page. There is an online tool that creates a character sheet formatted to post in forum thread, brought to you by Parisbre56 for your convenience.

Q: Do I get any starting equipment?

A: Luckily for you, yes! You get a MCP-I suit and 5 tokens. Also some regular clothes you can wear while on-ship, if you don't want to run around butt-naked.

Q: So, what to do until I can go on a mission?

A: Run around on the ship (description and map here), talk to other players, interact with NPCs, watch TV in the (w)rec room. Or just go dick around in VR (virtual reality) like everybody else and try some of the programs: design a weapon, look up information, play a game.

Q: Hey, I'm on my first mission! This is kinda neat OH MY GOD EVERYBODY IS DYING I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO OH GOD OH GOD

A: Don't panic! There are several ways any character can be played, and not all of them have to be combat oriented. Just try to find a niche for your character, and remember: losing is fun! That said, check the paragraph below if you want some tips to lower the chance of being violently mutilated on your first day (ugh, Mondays, right?)

The first thing to know is that there is no "right" way to play. If you want to play a talky support character without any combat skills, go ahead! The first and biggest rule of this forum game is to have fun, not to "win". Do note however, that such characters will usually have a harder time, especially in the beginning, so if you want to build a balanced character, there are some things you could try:

Before deciding exactly what your stats are, you should check out the Stats and Skills page.

Having one good combat skill; while a rounded character certainly has its merits, in the beginning it's often handy to have just one good combat skill. You can still fill out the other ones later on, after some level-ups, but for that first mission having one way to reliably defend yourself might turn out rather crucial;

Every weapon category has its strengths and weaknesses, and knowing what those are can certainly give you an edge. Check out Stats and Skills for some more information;

Plan: having some idea early on how you want to progress with your character can help to prevent spending level-up points on the wrong things;

Teamwork is key! While you are certainly allowed to play a lone wolf, often cooperating with your teammates is the thing changing a total party kill into a flawless victory;

Getting a MPC-II suit before or right after your first mission is advised if you are worried about death. Bleeding and suit breaches are major concerns - most rookies die to those causes in case they are not instantly killed - and the MCP-II makes an effort to keep you alive.

Nyars sells artifacts for reasonably cheap prices. Be careful - while they can be used as weapons in place of what the armory sells, they're extremely dangerous, have killed characters before, and even more random and unpredictable than they used to be. Use at your own risk. That being said, they can be extremely powerful, so if you don't mind a bit of risk, feel free. There's a lot of benefit to be had.